– Derek Allen, Attorney –

While I was in law school, I remember listening to a podcast with Grantland’s Bill Simmons and Toronto Maple Leafs GM, Brian Burke.  One particular line from Burke stood out to me: paraphrased, Burke said that a good idea that you steal is just as  good as a good idea you think of yourself, except that it takes lot less work (I recall that it was in reference to his using statistics developed by NBA teams to evaluate hockey players).  That idea stuck with me, and I’ll put it in practice today by pointing you to some ideas that you can steal to help your business.

Thanks to StumbleUpon, which I can’t recommend enough if you want to burn hours on the internet, I came across the Both Sides of the Table blog written by Mark Suster, a current angel investor and, based on his resume, the rough equivalent of a utility infielder for Silicon Valley.  I suspect that many of our readers either work for or are looking to start their own business, and although his blog focuses on tech start-ups, the advice is excellent and should be helpful to anyone who runs his or her own shop.  Specifically, because it involves my line of work, I’ll point you to his advice on working with lawyers, his experience negotiating terms sheets (which I can tell you is spot-on in my experience), and his advice for not letting middle-men (including yours truly) delay your all-important deal.  I direct you to these posts because they mention lawyers, but the blog is a treasure trove of information for those who are looking to start or grow their own business.

So, steal Mark Suster’s good ideas.  And I thank Bill Simmons, Brian Burke, StumbleUpon, and Mark Suster for letting me steal their good ideas and giving me a blog post that pretty much wrote itself.